Bag packer and weigher with jigging device



Feb. 22, 1949. H. s. RHODES BAG PACKER AND WEIGHER WITH JIGGING DEVICE Filed Aug. 19, 1944 QJ AN www .HERMAN 5. RHUJJES Patented Feb. 22, 1949 BAG PACKER AND WEIGHER WITH JIGGING DEVICE Herman S. Rhodes, Birmingham, Ala., assigner to St. Regis Paper Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application August 19, 1944, Serial No. 550,138

Claims.

This inventio-n relates to a device for jigging or settling the material in a bag while it is being lled upc-n a weighing device. More particularly the invention relates to settlingr the material in a package, which is being lled on a weighing device, without interfering with the action of the weighing device. Details of the invention and further objects will appear as the description proceeds.

In the accompanying drawings forming part of this specication- Figure l is a diagrammatic view cf one embodiment of the invention, showing sufficient parts of the filling and weighing device to indicate the way in which the invention may be applied.

Figure 2 is a sectional plan'view on the line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a vertical section of the lower part of the apparatus on the line 3-3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a front view of an alternative form of bottom support.

In the drawings, the jigging device is shown diagrammatically as being applied to a valve bag lling machine. As shown, a valve bag I0 has its valve threaded onto a filling spout Il which may be supplied with material by any suitable means, not shown, and which may be of the type shown in the patent to Bates 1,209,105 December 19, 1916 or any suitable variation thereof. The lling spout is shown as being supported upon a frame I2 which in turn is pivoted at I3 upon a scale beam I4 mounted upon a fixed portion of the frame indicated at I5. Frame I2 is maintained upright by a connecting rod I6 pivoted to frame I2 and to a xed member II.

Mounted on the lower part of frame I2 there is a bracket I8. Pivoted at I9 on bracket I8 there is a bag saddle or bottom support for bag I0. A motor 2l is mounted on bracket 22 attached to the lower end of frame I2, and by means of a belt 23 drives. a shaft 24 mounted in bracket I8. On shaft 24 there is an eccentric 25 which operates a connection 2B to the rear side of bottom support 20.

The apparatus illustrated is intended for constant operation of motor 2|. As is customary in valve bag lling devices of this kind, an empty bag is placed upon the lling tube and then discharge of material is started from any suitable source through the lling tube into the bag. When a sufficient weight of material has been placed in the bag to lower frame I2, there is automatic means, not shown, which stops the feed of material into the bag, for example, as shown in United States Letters Patent to W. R. Peterson 1,818,094 granted August 11, 1931.

The purpose of the present invention is to settle the material in the bag, while it is being filled, without upsetting the weighing operation or changing the weight which there is in the bag at the time the feed is shut off by the weighing device. As will be seen, the connection of the motor to the eccentric is such that the eccentric will rotate at the same speed as the motor. The result is a very rapid oscillation of bottom support 20. It will be noted also that pivot I9 is approximately in the middle of the bottom of the bag so that the oscillation of the bottom support does not actually lift the bag but rocks the bottom from side to side, one side going down at the same time that the other side goes up. The eccentricity of eccentric 25 in the drawings is not intended t0 be to scale. In one successful embodiment of the invention employed in lling one hundred pound bags with chicken grits, the eccentricity has been between T1.; and 1/ of an inch, giving the rear side of bottom 20 a travel through between 1/8 and 1/4 of an inch. With this construction it was found that as rapid a vibration as 1750 revolutions per minute would result in practically no interference with the weighing operation, while satisfactorily settling the material in the bag and allowing the filling of a given amount of material into a smaller bag than could be done if no settling action were employed. The rapid oscillation of bottom 20 has a slight jarring action on the scale beam, imparting a slight quiver thereto, but any interference it might have with the accuracy of the weighing action is counterbalanced by the elimination of the resistance of the knife edges to movement because of the quivering action, so that the Weighing is performed accurately.

A construction with the pivot of the bottom support moved to one edge of the bottom support l so that the greater part of the bottom support was raised and lowered at each rotation of the eccentric was sufiicient to interfere somewhat with the accuracy of the weighing with the speed of rotation at about 1800 revolutions per minute. Likewise an increase of the throw up to half an inch interfered with the accuracy of weighing, and even the proportions employed and described above interfered somewhat with the weighing action when the speed was reduced materially below 1750 revolutions per minute. Therefore, a speed of 1750 revolutions per minute and 'a maximum throw of not much over one quarter of an inch in apparatus for filling a one hundred pound bag, or an oscillation through less than 3, and a pivoting of the bottom sup'port approximately under the middle of the bag. seem to be necessary requirements for achieving the utmost accuracy of weights with the type of material and package described.

With-narrower bags, the throw should be increased or else the attachment should be nearer the pivot of the bottom support, so that the lift of the edge of the bag remains about the same. A bag shortens somewhat as it is filled, due to the spreading of the bag walls. If a fiat bottom support is used, such as shown in Figure 3, it may be best to let the bottom of the bag'hang at one side of the support until there is enough material in the bag to spread the bottom, after which the bottom may be lifted onto the support.

In Figure 4 there is shown a type of bottom support 20i with a downwardly curved central portion 21 in-which the bottom of the empty bag may hang. This is shown arranged to flll a bag closed by sewn seams. As material is lled into the bag and the sides spread, the bottom of the bag is supported on the curving sides 'of the support, as described in the Bates and Cosford Patent 1,597,006, issued Aug. 24, 1926. The jigging action assists in properly lling the bottom of the bag and causing it to climb up on the curving sides of the bottom support, asA it minimizes the effect of friction between the bag and the support as well as assisting in filling out the bag bottom. The bottom support 201 may be rocked on pivots ISI in the same way in which bottom 20 is rocked on pivots I9.

It will be readily seen that wide variations may be made in the means for filling material into the bag and in the construction of the weighing means, its connections to the bag support, and the means by which it stops the flow of material when a suficient charge is in the bag, also in the means for producing the jigging oscillations, while retaining some advantages of the invention described above and defined in the appended claims, and in its broadest aspects could be applied to filling open mouthed bags, although especially adapted for filling valve bags.

What I claim is:

1. In apparatus for filling and weighing valve bags the combination comprising, weighing scale means, bag supporting means pivotally mounted upon said scale means for weighing thereby, a

filling spout mounted'upon said bag supporting means, means for stopping the flow of material through said spout in response to weighing action of said scale means, a bag bottom support for supporting the bag in position on'said spout during filling, means pivotally mounting said bottom support on said bag supporting means along a generally horizontal axis which passes adjacent the center of the bag bottom, and means for rapidly oscillating said bottom support about its pivotal mount during filling and weighing of the bag with an amplitude of oscillation insuicient materially to alter the position of the center of gravity of the bag with respect to the scale means and at a frequency too high for the scale means tio respond thereto in its action of stopping said ow. t

2. In apparatus for'iilling and weighiig valve bags, the combination comprising, a scale beam having a weight operatively associated with one end thereof, bag support means pivotally mounted upon the other end thereof, a filling spout mounted upon said bag support means, means for controlling a flow of material through said spout in response to weighing action of the scale beam. a bag bottom support pivotally mounted upon said bag support means upon an axis which passes adjacent the center of the bag bottom, said bottom support being positioned to support the bag when on the spout, the axes of the two abovementioned pivotal mounts being substantially parallel, and means for rapidly oscillating the bag bottom support about its pivotal mount during the lling of the bag, the amplitude of the oscillations being sufliciently small and their frequency suiciently high that the center of gravity of the bag and the weighing action, are substantially unaltered by the oscillations.

3. In apparatus for filling and weighing valve bags the combination comprising, Weighing scale means, bag support means pivotally mounted upon said scale means for weighing thereby, a iilling spout mounted upon said bag support means, means for stopping the fiow of material through said spout in response to weighing action of said scale means, a bag bottom support for supporting the bag in position on said spout during filling, means pivotally mounting said bottom support on said bag ,supporting means along a generally horizontal axis which passes adjacent the center of the bag bottom, the pivot axes of said bag support means and of said bottom support pivotal mounting means being substantial parallel, and means for rapidly oscillating said bottom support about its pivotal mount during filling and weighing of the bag with oscillations insuiicient materially to alter the position of the center of gravity of the bag relative to the scale means and at a frequency too high for the scale means to respond thereto to actuate said means for stopping the material flow.

4. In apparatus for filling and weighing valve bags the combination including, scale means, bag supporting means pivotally mounted upon said scale means, a lling spout mounted upon said bag supporting means, control means for stopping the fiow of material through said spout in response to weighing action of said scale means, a bag bottom support for supporting the bag in position on -said spout during filling, means pivotally mounting said bottom support onsaid bag supporting means along an axis which passes adjacent the center of the bag bottom, and means mounted upon the bag supporting means for rapidly oscillating said bottom support about its pivotal mount during filling and Weighing of the bag, such oscillations being of an amplitude suilciently small that the position of the center of gravity of the bag is not materially altered relative to the bag support means, and the frequency of said oscillations being too high to infiuence the weighing action of the scale means.

5. In apparatus for filling and weighing valve bagsthe combination comprising, a scale `beam having` a weight operatively associated at one end thereof and pivotallyl mounted intermediate the extremities thereof, bag support means pivotally mounted upon the opposite extremity of said scale beam, a spout mounted upon the bag support means, means for producing a flow of material through the spout and into a bag, control means for said flow operable in response to Weighing action of the scale beam, a bag saddle pvotally mounted adjacent the center thereof upon the bag supporty means, the axes of said pivotal mounts being substantially parallel, and meansfor oscillating the bag saddle about its pivotal mount during the filling of the bag through an arc of not more than about three degrees and at a frequency in the neighborhood of 1700 or more per minute.

HERMAN S. RHODES.

6 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 532,304 Baldwin Jan. 8, 1895 1,138,618 Bates May 11, 1915 2,144,046 Cundall Jan. 1'1., 1939 10 2,205,010 Hartman et a1 June la, 1940 2,345,287 Peterson Mar. 28, 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 476,963 Germany May 30, 1929 

